At first there was silence. Then a faint shuffling. Then a quiet splash. That was all Tim needed to hear to know its job was done. The shadow retreated to the room Jesse was resting in and examined from a distance. The young boy was still breathing soft pained breaths, his eyes shut tight and seemed to be darting in a million different directions behind his eyelids. Knowing the two humans were safe, Tim made its way to the porch steps once more, allowing the cool rain to help its body to regain its usual almost human-like shape. It was not long after a series of doors opening and closing that Tim heard Blaine’s approach.

  “Don’t laugh, it was all I could find.” Blaine mumbled; Tim turned to see what they had meant. Blaine now donned a light purple mask with an image of a white cartoon rabbit on it, along with blue ripped jeans and a maroon sweater. It was a much different attire than before and while not quite suiting Blaine, it managed to do the job of keeping them warm. Blaine was threading a medium toothed comb through their dark hair, their waves beginning to reform. They sat themself behind Tim, just out of reach of the rain.

  “I won’t laugh. I wouldn’t have anyways.” Tim commented, just happy to see the human up and moving again.

  “I’m sorry.” Blaine spoke softly.

  “You don’t have to be.” Tim replied.

  “I didn’t want anyone seeing me like that. I guess I just panicked.” Blaine began running their fingers along the edge of the comb, causing a faint buzzing noise with each strum.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” The shadow offered, still trying to stay within Blaine’s comfort level.

  “No. Yes? I don’t know.” Blaine threw their head backwards and looked up at the porch ceiling. “I guess I never have before. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  “Well, for one thing, you seem to care a lot about your brother.” Tim started, “You want him safe at all costs.”

  “Of course I do, I’m the older sibling. It’s kind of my job to be there for him.” Blaine explained this to Tim, not sure if it was a foreign concept to the shadow.

  “But you don’t seem to treat yourself the same way.” This comment made Blaine’s eyes hit the ground in a mixture of guilt and embarrassment.

  “I don’t.” Blaine stated honestly, “But it doesn’t matter. I want him to be safe no matter what, like you said. I want to protect him.”

  “But if something happened to you because you didn’t take care of yourself, you wouldn’t be able to be there for him.” There was a moment of silence as Blaine pondered the idea. “Do you think Jesse would want to see you hurting?”

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  “Probably not.” Blaine sighed, “Definitely not.”

  “It’s not a bad thing to protect him, but that doesn’t mean you should suffer for him. If you wouldn’t want him to suffer, odds are he wouldn’t want that for you either.”

  “I don’t want him to suffer. But I don’t have a choice. If I don’t help him then who will?” Blaine pulled their knees to their chest and rested their head atop them.

  “You still can, but you need someone to help you too.” Tim reached slowly and placed a dark hand on Blaine’s. “If you feel you have to suffer, that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. You’re not alone.”

  Blaine scoffed at first and rolled their eyes. That was such a generic phrase for them to hear. But the weight of the words began to pull down their throat and cause tears to form. Blaine wanted to pull away, but felt themself falling into the embrace of the shadow before them. The embrace, though in reality was frigid, felt warm and comforting. Normally in the presence of others Blaine would have tried to push the tears away, or laugh and try to ignore their feelings, but now they sat in the arms of Tim and just sobbed. They sobbed away the guilt and shame. They sobbed away the pressure they had put upon themself. They sobbed until they felt the emptiness inside be strangely filled with something else. Something powerful. Energetic.

  “I never really thought I would talk about this.” Blaine said, pulling their body away from Tim. “Much less with…” Their voice trailed off.

  “A shadow?” Tim finished, assuring that it took no offense. “Well, it’s not every day you get life advice from a sex-crazed monster, is it?”

  Taken aback by the lighthearted self-depreciating humor, Blaine snorted and burst out into laughter. Tim joined in and they both found themselves enveloped in the pure joy and absurdity of their situation. The laughter grew louder and louder, Tim’s quieting after a few seconds, but Blaine’s became more aggressive. It became lower and turned into a soft rasp, then an intense cough. They pulled their mask away from their face and coughed a few seconds more, their face red and eyes brimming with tears. Tim leaned closer with concern, but the human raised a hand indicating they needed a second to catch their breath.

  “Sorry about that.” They said with a slight gasp. “I just suddenly inhaled some-” Their eyes shot open, darting around in panic. Tim followed as they sprung up from their spot and began examining the sky. While the rain had begun to subside, the sky remained dark. Blaine followed this darkness until they realized its source. “…smoke.” They finished, pointing in the direction of the village. A dark black plume was rising in the distance, and Blaine was sure that their new friends were in the center of it. In an instant, they pulled their mask back up and tried to sprint. Their arm was pulled back by the shadow.

  “What are you doing? You’ll get yourself killed!” Tim said with concern.

  “They could be in trouble, I need to make sure they aren’t under attack.” Blaine explained sternly. Tim wanted to protest more but realized Blaine had made up their mind.

  “I’m coming with you.” The shadow ordered.

  “No, someone needs to watch Jesse.” The human protested.

  “You want me to be the one to tell him I sat around while you ran blindly into danger and got yourself killed? Yeah, no thanks.” Before either could protest more, they both began to run after each other in the direction of the village. Neither one was quite sure what they were running into, but both were slightly glad they were not going in alone.